Can crows count much like toddlers do? The research was inspired by toddlers learning to count, said lead study author Diana Liao, a neurobiologist and senior researcher at the Tübingen lab. “They understand abstract numbers … and then plan ahead as they match their behavior to match that number,” Williams said. The study by Liao and her colleagues isn’t even the first to consider whether crows can count. The crows’ counting abilities “seem to exceed the demands which survival makes for such abilities,” he wrote.

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Persons: ”, Heather Williams, ” Williams, Diana Liao, Liao, caws Liao, peck, ” Liao, We’re, B.F, Skinner, Kevin McGowan, McGowan wasn’t, McGowan, they’re, Andreas Nieder, isn’t, Nicholas Thompson, Irene Pepperberg, Pepperberg, Alex, Thompson Organizations: CNN, University of, Williams College, Cornell, of Ornithology, University of Tübingen, Boston University, Tübingen Locations: Germany, Massachusetts, Ithaca , New York